Jared Featherstone directs the University Writing Center and teaches at James Madison University in Virginia. Before entering academia full-time, he worked as a reporter and editor. He has an MFA in Creative Writing and a BA in Journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park.

His short fiction as appeared in Ashé Journal. He is currently seeking representation for his first novel and a memoir.

For the past 20 years, Featherstone has been an active songwriter and musician. His musical career has included 10 released recordings, shows at DC’s famed 9:30 Club and New York’s CBGB, and television soundtracks. He continues to release music under the project names Starlight Drive and Bluejay.

Featherstone started studying and practicing Tai Chi Chuan and Qi Gong in 1996, along with Ba Gua, Xing Yi, and Taoist sitting meditation. In 1998, he sat his first 10-day vipassana retreat in the system of Burmese teacher S.N. Goenka. In 2000, through Wu Shen Tao Martial Arts Center in Washington, he studied under Masters Liu Xiao Ling and Paul Ramos, focusing on the Chen and Yang styles of Tai Chi. He has continued to practice vipassana, attending retreats and classes with Jack Kornfield, Larry Rosenberg, Tara Brach, Hugh Byrne, and Jonathan Foust.

For the past seven years, he has been a mindfulness meditation teacher for the Madison Meditates program at JMU. He has also taught insight meditation at two yoga studios. Most recently, he has received teacher training from the Koru Mindfulness Center in Durham, NC.

Featherstone lives with his wife and two sons in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.